The pathological changes underlying many chronic diseases begin Iin early childhood and are influenced by personal factors and habits of living that exert their force over long periods prior to the clinical recognition of disease. A better knowledge of these recursors in the days of youth is essential to reduce the incidence and prevent the complications of disease in middle and later life. This project seeks to identify host and environmental factors of college students that predispose to specific chronic diseases later in life. Physical examinations and other college records of bygone years provide the initial documented data that are examined for associations with chronic diseases that develop after college. Endpoint diseases are measured through self-administered questionnaires, further physical examinations, and death certificate information. In year 04 of this continuation grant, special emphasis was placed on testing old hypotheses and searching for new leads concerning the etiology of peptic ulcer, ulcerative colitis and diverticulitis. Also, effort was directed to 1) compiling and storing of data on health status of former students from mail questionnaires received in 1972; 2) identifying deceased alumni and acquiring their official death certificate to update mortality files; 3) recoding of official death certificates, 1916-1973, to facilitate study of sudden, unexpected, natural deaths and their antecedent correlates; 4) developing life-table methods to compare death rates of former college students with corresponding U. S. national rates of white males; and 5) identifying control subjects for former students who died from lymphomas (4:1:: control: case, and matched on year of birth, college and year of entrance, and survivorship) for subsequent analysis.